Room (Compact Disc)

Summer '11 Reading Group List

“Room is like no other book I have ever read. This emotionally powerful story of young Jack and his mother who are held in captivity for seven years is both a heart-wrenching testament to the power of the love between a mother and child and a riveting story of overcoming horrible circumstances. Emma Donohue has written one of those rare books that you will remember reading your entire life, as you will be altered by the experience.”
— Lanora Hurley, Next Chapter Bookshop, Mequon, WI

September 2010 Indie Next List

“Room is like no other book I have ever read. This emotionally powerful story of young Jack and his mother, held in captivity for seven years, is both a heart wrenching testament to the power of the love between a mother and child and a riveting story of overcoming horrible circumstances. Emma Donohue has written one of those rare books that you will remember reading your entire life, as you will be altered by the experience.”
— Lanora Hurley, Next Chapter Bookshop, Mequon, WI

Description

To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it's where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits.

Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it is the prison where Old Nick has held her captive for seven years. Through determination, ingenuity, and fierce motherly love, Ma has created a life for Jack. But she knows it's not enough...not for her or for him. She devises a bold escape plan, one that relies on her young son's bravery and a lot of luck. What she does not realize is just how unprepared she is for the plan to actually work.

Told entirely in the language of the energetic, pragmatic five-year-old Jack, ROOM is a celebration of resilience and the limitless bond between parent and child, a brilliantly executed novel about what it means to journey from one world to another.

About the Author

Born in Dublin in 1969, Emma Donoghue is an Irish emigrant twice over: she spent eight years in Cambridge doing a PhD in eighteenth-century literature before moving to London, Ontario, where she lives with her partner and their two children. She also migrates between genres, writing literary history, biography, stage and radio plays as well as fairy tales and short stories. She is best known for her novels, which range from the historical ("Slammerkin," "Life Mask," "Landing," "The Sealed Letter") to the contemporary ("Stir-Fry," "Hood," "Landing"). Her international bestseller "Room" was a "New York Times "Best Book of 2010 and was a finalist for the Man Booker, Commonwealth, and Orange Prizes. For more information, visit www.emmadonoghue.com.

Praise For…

"Emma Donoghue's writing is superb alchemy, changing innocence into horror and horror into tenderness. Room is a book to read in one sitting. When it's over you look up: the world looks the same but you are somehow different and that feeling lingers for days." -Audrey Niffenegger, author of The Time Traveler's Wife and Her Fearful Symmetry

"I loved Room. Such incredible imagination, and dazzling use of language. And with all this, an entirely credible, endearing little boy. It's unlike anything I've ever read before." -Anita Shreve, author of The Pilot's Wife and A Change in Altitude

"Room is one of the most profoundly affecting books I've read in a long time. Jack moved me greatly. His voice, his story, his innocence, his love for Ma combine to create something very unusual and, I think, something very important. I read the book over two days, desperate to know how their story would end . . . Room deserves to reach the widest possible audience." -John Boyne, author of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

"Room is that rarest of entities, an entirely original work of art. I mean it as the highest possible praise when I tell you that I can't compare it to any other book. Suffice to say that it's potent, darkly beautiful, and revelatory." -Michael Cunningham, author of The Hours and By Nightfall

"Powerful.... Seen entirely through Jack's eyes and childlike perceptions, the developments in this novel--there are enough plot twists to provide a dramatic arc of breathtaking suspense--are astonishing.... Donoghue brilliantly portrays the psyche of a child raised in captivity...will keep readers rapt." -Publishers Weekly

"Talented, versatile Donoghue relates a searing tale of survival and recovery, in the voice of a five-year-old boy.... Donoghue brilliantly shows mother and son grappling with very different issues as they adjust to freedom.... In the story's most heartbreaking moments, it seems that Ma may be unable to live with the choices she made to protect Jack. But his narration reveals that she's nurtured a smart, perceptive and willful boy--odd, for sure, but resilient, and surely Ma can find that resilience in herself.... Wrenching, as befits the grim subject matter, but also tender, touching and at times unexpectedly funny." -Kirkus